


strange how laughter looks like crying with no sound

by Crimsoncat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Shenanigans, F/F, I don't know why I'm trying to pretend that I do, I dunno what people consider mild, mild-ish, rating for language and mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 13:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11624625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crimsoncat/pseuds/Crimsoncat
Summary: Marvel comics can bite me.A moment in the lives of the Avengers.





	strange how laughter looks like crying with no sound

**Author's Note:**

> Anyway. Fuck Strange Empire forever is what I'm saying.
> 
> (If our group had a name I would dedicate this to you guys. Pretend that it does, and that I did.)
> 
> Edit: fixed the giant plot hole. This is why you shouldn't write edit and post within just a couple of hours when you're tired.

Captain America’s shield collided with the Black Widow’s neck, and the crack of bone shattering was unmistakable.

"You son of a _bitch,_ ” Maria growled as the Black Widow fell. “You're going to pay for that,” she promised him.

Natasha didn’t say anything as her body collapsed to the ground. She was dead, and any words she might have had, any snappy remark that may have been sitting on the tip of her tongue, died with her.

Steve grinned at Maria, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You volunteering to be next, Hill?”

"Alright guys, take a breath,” Sam interrupted from across the room. “It's just a game.”

“You're only saying that because you keep dying,” Darcy scoffed.

“I just think maybe some of us are getting a bit too invested.” Sam frowned, but no one looked away from their screen to see it.

“Fuck that,” Natasha spat angrily as she recovered from the shock of her avatar’s death. “Avenge me, Masha!”

Maria nodded fiercely. “You got it. Clint!”

“I got your back,” Clint promised. “No one kills our girl.”

“Damn right,” Maria muttered.

Once a week the Avengers assembled to spend time with one another. Or, rather, once a week they did their best to assemble to spend time together. The extended Avengers family was made up of superheroes and CEOs. High ranking members of military (and paramilitary) organizations and world renowned scientists. Which meant that sometimes their schedules were just a teeny bit unpredictable. But, they did their best.

This week only a fraction of them had been able to attend. Which was a shame, because this was the week Tony finally unveiled what he’d been working on for the better part of eight months.

One of the rooms in the tower had been repurposed into a game room. It was filled with comfortable seating, a large snack and bar area, and screens. So many screens. Enough so the entire group could play together if they were ever able to coordinate their schedules. Tony had made sure they each had a screen of their own; though he was working on turning it into a VR game with headsets.

Tony had created an MMORPG game just for them. He had lured the best and brightest minds in the gaming industry to his company with disgustingly large salaries and insane perks, and he had them build the Avengers this game.

Though there was a customization option, and the ability to build an avatar from scratch, the game was filled with tiny digital representations of each of them. Quite predictably they had each chosen to play themselves. They then spent the first hour just exploring the game and enjoying the small details of their avatars.

(A tiny little digital Liho came with Natasha’s avatar, and she followed Natasha and Maria around the game. Digital Liho was even useful, helping them to complete quests and take down weaker enemies. Maria discovered a vendor that sold cat related items, and had even found tiny little armour for Liho to wear. Their cat was now a chain mail wearing badass.)

Something they had discovered pretty early on in the game was that they could kill anyone they weren't grouped with. They’d immediately split into two teams of four and happily slaughtered each other whenever the two groups crossed paths. Natasha, Maria, Clint and Darcy made up one group while Sam, Tony, Steve and Bucky made up the other. They’d been playing the game for almost eleven hours straight, and the rivalry between the two groups became more and more intense as the hours passed.

Each time the groups came across one another their battles were bigger and more impressive. As they leveled they unlocked new abilities and powers, and Steve had unlocked his shield shortly before Natasha’s team had tried to ambush them. Which turned out to be perfect timing since he was able to use his shield to take out Natasha before she could use any of her Black Widow tricks on them.

Natasha cursed under her breath as she raced back to her body and the fight. They were keeping a running list of bugs and things that needed to be adjusted; the length of time it took to get back to your body after you died was at the top of the list. (In bold letters and underlined three times.)

Down a member, Natasha’s group was at a slight disadvantage as Steve’s group moved towards them. Natasha and her team had been leveling quickly, powering through the quest lines and getting lucky with loot drops. For most of the game they’d been much stronger than Steve’s team, and they'd been winning most of the impromptu battles. But Steve’s team had caught up with them, and gotten some miraculous drops off the last boss that they killed.

(Clint was adamant that Tony had finally grown tired of losing to them and used some pre programmed command to twist the odds of the game in his team’s favour.

Tony responded with a laughing “Prove it, Legolas.”)

Sam, who had just unlocked his wings, dropped out of the sky. He focused on Clint, forcing the archer to shift his focus away from Steve to defend himself, and Sam was able to separate him from Maria’s side.

Tony and Bucky were teaming up against Darcy, who had discovered how to claim the really cool mechanical armour in the last town they’d passed through. She was ridiculously overpowered with that armour boost, so the two guys moved together to deal with her.

Maria swung her magical sword, her speed and agility buffs making her movements almost a blur, and Steve barely managed to raise his shield in time to escape being decapitated. Pixelated sparks filled the air as Maria’s sword slid along Steve’s shield.

The battle raged for a few minutes before either side gained the upper hand. And, in the end, it was a stupid mistake that tipped the balance in Steve’s favour.

Maria had forgotten to repair her gear before they left the last town.

The magical sword swung through the air and clashed against Steve’s shield. And, when the weakened sword met the resistance of the powerful shield, it lost its last point of durability and shattered.

Maria, who loved her sword and had been trying to think of a suitable name for it, gasped as her baby broke. Completely stunned and horrified, Maria didn't react fast enough when Steve moved forward to press his advantage.

Steve’s shield collided with Maria’s chest, knocking her to the ground. He raised his own sword and moved swiftly to defeat his foe.

“Maria!” Clint shouted as he desperately tried to shake Sam long enough to help her.

“I'm almost there babe,” Natasha promised, “hang on; I'm coming!”

Darcy was too busy fighting for her life to add anything beyond a string of muttered obscenities.

Maria desperately tried to cast one of the few defensive spells she had learned, but it was no use. Steve was just too fast, there wasn't time for any of them to do anything.

At least, there wasn't time for any of the _human_ characters to do anything.

Liho burst out of the bushes where she’d been crouched, yowling fiercely as she launched herself at Steve’s face in an attempt to defend her mother.

Steve screamed in surprise as the tiny black demon cat came out of nowhere. He dropped his weapons, his hands flying to his face in an attempt to pry Liho off of him. The others all froze, startled by Steve’s scream and Liho’s ferocity. All except Maria, who seized the opportunity Liho afforded her.

Maria dove forward, snatching up Steve’s sword. “Liho!” Maria shouted in warning. Her words were picked up by the microphones interfaced with the game and Liho sprung away from Steve as Maria moved to cut him down.

Steve sputtered, outraged, as he watched his avatar die. The others were still frozen, shocked by the sudden turn of events, when Natasha rematerialized. Finally returned from her corpse run, Natasha let out a cry of victory as she attacked an unsuspecting Bucky. He was dead within moments, and Darcy finished Tony off easily after that.

Sam threw his hands up in the air. “You know what? I'm defecting. Let me join your group and I'll tell you where Bucky hid our cache of epics.”

“Deal!” Clint agreed quickly.

“HEY!” Bucky protested loudly.

Sam gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry Buck, I refuse to make that corpse run again.”

Tony squinted at his screen. “I forgot about that,” he muttered to himself.

“Forgot about what?” Steve asked, a slight edge to his voice.

“Uh.” Tony blinked. “Nothing. What?”

“Tony..” Steve narrowed his eyes at him.

Maria and Natasha’s avatars were dancing around the bodies of their fallen enemies while Liho sat and watched, looking extremely pleased with herself. Tony made a face at the three of them and released his spirit to escape their mockery. “I might have, maybe, forgotten about a specific line of Liho’s code.”

Natasha and Maria looked away from their screens as the other members of their group joined in their celebratory dancing. “What's this about Liho?” Natasha asked.

“Before someone can actually kill the two of you they have to deal with Liho first,” Tony explained with a sigh. “She _won't_ let both of you die. She goes into a.. kind of nightmare mode to protect you if only one of you is left standing.”

“We have to kill _Liho_?!" Steve exclaimed. “I can't kill Liho, Tony!”

“Oh my god we’re going to win everything forever,” Natasha whispered reverently, her eyes bright with glee.

“TONY!” Steve shouted, absolutely aghast.

“I'll fix it, I'll fix it,” Tony assured him quickly.

“Don't you _dare_!” Maria exclaimed.

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but before he could a new voice cut through the room.

“What the hell are you guys doing?” Pepper demanded. “It's nearly six am!”

“Hey, you're back!” Tony exclaimed happily, turning in his seat to look at her. “How was your flight?”

“Tell me you haven't been playing this game all night!” Pepper looked horrified and vaguely furious.

“No one tell her,” Darcy stage whispered.

Pepper rolled her eyes heavenward as Clint and Sam started laughing. “Why,” she asked the ceiling, “what did I do to deserve this?”

“You know there’s a Pepper avatar.” Tony grinned at her. “You've been stuck in stockholder meetings for days now, come kill stuff with us and unwind.”

Pepper kept staring at the ceiling, quietly questioning her life choices.

“You can be on our team and help us kick Tony’s ass,” Maria offered.

“Our cat makes us invincible,” Natasha added happily.

Pepper blinked and looked away from the ceiling to smile at them. “You know, that _does_ sound like a nice way to unwind.”

“What? No! Pepper is on our team!” Tony insisted.

“Yeah, you already stole Sam!” Bucky agreed.

“Sam just has a good survival instinct,” Darcy countered, “we didn't _steal_ anyone.”

Sam nodded in agreement. “Exactly.”

“No, Pepper, you _can't_ be on their team!” Tony’s voice had a desperate edge to it that absolutely no one missed.

There was a beat of silence, and then Maria started laughing.

Steve gaped at Tony in horror. “You made her invulnerable too, didn't you?”

Maria laughed harder.

“It’s _Pepper!_ ” Tony snapped, like that explained everything.

(And, to be fair, it kind of did.)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated and encouraged, as always :) Thanks for reading!


End file.
